As a child, he wanted to be a painter, a desire that changed his first consent… The writer Besnik Mustafaj, who has also been ambassador to France, deputy and foreign minister, tells about his life in the podcast ‘T’pa thana’ on Gazetasi.al between politics and literature as well as his relationship with Sali Berisha.
He tells that when he was still small, he made rhymes and poems to please a girl, and while this liking left, he left his love for literature.
He says that the events of 1990-1991 made literature take a back seat and focus on politics, which also “gave” him friendship with former Prime Minister Sali Berisha.
“In the protest of the 90s, it was understood that Berisha would be the president, also because he decided on major things, something that the rest of us did not do”, says Mustafaj, who adds that that period brought him closer to Berisha. who later invited him to become foreign minister.
“After the change of the system, he asked me to become the foreign minister because at that time I maintained a lot of relations with the embassies. I did not accept. I had achieved the main thing, I had achieved the freedom to write whatever I wanted. When I refused, a kind of benevolent pressure started that I had to take responsibility. In May ’92, I met a Mexican poet who had also won the Nobel Prize and was working as an ambassador in Paris. Meanwhile, Berisha told me to go ambassador to France. I tell the writer that this is what they are telling me and he said “Go, you will have time to write”.
After several positions, Mustafaj decided to give up politics, becoming one of the only ones who made such a decision at that time. This led to the breakdown of the close friendship he had with Berisha!
“We were close friends with Berisha. In 2007 I resigned as foreign minister and there was a rift. I have officially said that I no longer work with him although I did not leave in a hostile manner. Since my departure in mid-April and until now, I have never engaged in personal criticism with him”, says Mustafaj, who says that when he was Berisha’s advisor, he was the only one who told him things as they were and Berisha accepted, sometimes with difficulty anyway.
“Many of the criticisms that I used to make confidentially, I made publicly later in the newspaper”.
After 2007, their first communication was in 2021, when Mustafaj asked him for a preface for his book “Between crimes and mirages”, where Berisha has been mentioned many times, but as it was, without glorifying his figure.
“From 2007, I talked to him on the phone in 2021. I didn’t know how he would take it, but I asked him to write me a foreword for the book and he agreed. After sending it to me, he said “add or remove whatever you want”.
Mustafaj says that the lack of national awards is also a consequence of his involvement in politics.
“I received very important awards abroad. In Albania, I received awards, but not national awards. Every year I am a competitor, but that’s it. at the time of the DP they didn’t give me awards because they said “this is ours”, but now they don’t give me an award because I belong to the DP”, says Mustafaj who shows that he doesn’t miss political life at all and the only concern it is up to him if he will find time to write more.
“Writing is loneliness. The writer’s life is not beautiful. It’s a struggle to spend a lot of time alone”, says Mustafaj, answering the question if his wife accompanies him while he writes.
